SUNx Malta to stage first Strong Earth Youth Summit

“Good Tour­ism” Part­ner announce­ment: Youth Sum­mit to cre­ate tomorrow’s Cli­mate Friendly Travel lead­ers through a vir­tu­al pro­gram of fun and edu­ca­tion­al events, as well as cre­ate Cli­mate Friendly Travel Champions.

SUN^x Malta will host the first ever cli­mate friendly youth travel sum­mit in April 2021. The ‘Strong Earth Youth Sum­mit’ (SEYS) will include lec­tures, work­shops and oth­er edu­ca­tion­al activ­it­ies aimed at high­light­ing the need for a clean and green post-Cov­id future for the tour­ism sec­tor, in accord­ance with the 2030 Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals and 2050 Par­is Agreement.

The vir­tu­al event, held on 29 April, will be in part­ner­ship with Thompson Okanagan Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation (TOTA), Brit­ish Columbia, Canada; Insti­tute of Tour­ism Stud­ies, Malta (ITS); and the Mekong Tour­ism Coordin­at­ing Office (MTCO). Events will be held in three centres: the Mekong, Malta and Brit­ish Columbia.

SEYS will focus on cre­at­ing aware­ness of Cli­mate Friendly Travel (CFT) and on fos­ter­ing ways to encour­age changes for a resi­li­ent Travel & Tour­ism future. It aims to pro­mote cli­mate hope in the recov­ery of the tour­ism industry through aware­ness and edu­ca­tion, youth empower­ment, and engage­ment and action. 

Announ­cing the youth sum­mit, Pro­fess­or Geof­frey Lip­man, Pres­id­ent of SUN^x Malta, said, “This is not just anoth­er of the many Travel & Tour­ism sum­mits. SEYS is designed for tomor­row’s lead­ers by tomor­row’s lead­ers – the 45 stu­dents from 30 coun­tries we have on our first ever Cli­mate Friendly Travel Dip­loma Course with ITS Malta. We charged them with cre­at­ing an event that would be mean­ing­ful and attract­ive for the Greta Thun­berg crowd.

“SEYS will identi­fy the core issues for the post – pan­dem­ic green and clean tour­ism sec­tor. Our stu­dents are put­ting togeth­er a fast and fun pro­gram, with enga­ging speak­ers, who will cap­tiv­ate a glob­al youth lead­er­ship audience.” 

The Sum­mit will include vir­tu­al tours, inter­act­ive work­shops, sem­inars, chal­lenges, present­a­tions, net­work­ing, and ques­tion and answer ses­sions, as well as an inform­a­tion ses­sion on the Cli­mate Friendly Travel Dip­loma and Cli­mate Friendly Travel Registry. The pro­gram has been designed by the stu­dents on the first Cli­mate Friendly Travel Dip­loma Course with ITS Malta.

SEYS will hon­our the vis­ion and con­tri­bu­tion of the late Maurice Strong, a close friend of Lip­man, after whom the sum­mit is named. Strong was the archi­tect of the UN Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment and Cli­mate Frame­work for half a cen­tury, and inspir­a­tion for SUN^x Malta and its Cli­mate Friendly Travel System. 

“SEYS will be the first of an annu­al testi­mony to the leg­acy of Maurice Strong, Cham­pi­on for the plan­et, who warned about the Cli­mate Crisis 50 years ago and spent the rest of his life build­ing the UN frame­work to respond to it,” says Lipman. 

SEYS will also launch the Strong Awards to encour­age stu­dents to pro­file Break­through Innov­a­tions in Cli­mate Friendly Travel, togeth­er with Les Roches Hos­pit­al­ity School.

For more inform­a­tion on SEYS or to register for it, vis­it www.thesunprogram.com

About SUN^x Malta 

SUN^x Malta is a not for profit, EU based, organ­isa­tion, partnered with the gov­ern­ment of Malta that has cre­ated a unique, low cost, sys­tem to help Travel & Tour­ism com­pan­ies and com­munit­ies trans­form to the New Cli­mate Eco­nomy. The SUN^x Malta “Green & Clean, Cli­mate Friendly Travel Sys­tem” is Action and Edu­ca­tion focused – sup­port­ing today’s com­pan­ies and com­munit­ies to deliv­er on their pro­claimed ambi­tions and encour­aging tomorrow’s young lead­ers to pre­pare for reward­ing careers across the sector.